Dr Darren Hurley-Smith

Darren is a cyber security academic specialising in cyber physical systems, network security and autonomous systems. Unmanned systems are a particular focus, and he has experience designing ground, air, and submersible autonomous platforms. Darren earned his PhD from the University of Greenwich in 2015, focusing on mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), MANET security and distributed task allocation algorithms. He has proposed multiple secure MANET routing protocol implementations intended as support/back up systems for 5G connected drones. He has more recently focused on Cyber Physical and Infrastructure security, specifically in smart-transport and environment security. Transport projects have focused on Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) and V2V communications security.

Darren is also a keen researcher of all things related to ransomware and cyber-extortion. He has developed cryptocurrency tracking tools, and collaborated on the identification and mitigation of cyber-extortion attacks in the Ethereum blockchain. He is an active contributor to ransomware modelling projects identifying the motivations, habits, and capabilities of extant ransomware gangs targeting critical infrastructure. In addition to his research interests, Darren is a keen educator, focusing on:

• Ethical Hacking
• Digital Forensics
• Game theoretic modelling of cyber attacks
• Statistical analysis of network communications
• Complex harms arising from privacy breaches and unregulated data harvesting (particularly by LLM developers)

Darren's research interests include:

• Statistical testing of random sequences
• Design and evaluation of random number generators
• Game theoretic analysis of ransomware and cyber extortion
• Unmanned aerial system (UAV) safety and security
• Side-channel analysis
• Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing
• Autonomous vehicle security
• Transport infrastructure security
• Communication systems privacy
• Mobile Ad hoc network security for redundant comms/safety systems

Noteworthy projects:

National Highways. 2024. Simulating Dataflows within Transport-related CCTV networks – Project Lead.

Omnidrome Testing and Research Facility. Royal Holloway University of London 2022-2024. Designing and implementing a combined education and research facility for UAV, UGV, and ROV technologies – Technical Manager.

RAMSES2020. Horizon 2016-2020. Tracking Financial Moneyflow of Ransomware and Cyber Extortion – Research Associate.  

• COMP8230 Introduction to Digital Forensics
• COMP6644/8340 Information Security Management
• Network Security
• Ethical Hacking 

Darren supervises PhD and MSc research students interested in autonomous systems security, with a focus on vehicles and UAVs. Network and communications security projects are especially welcome, particularly where public safety and integrity of decentralised systems is a focus.  

National/international activities

Development of simulation systems for awareness and impact analysis for networked CCTV. National Highways (England) 2024